54 Scattering Smoke Steps (1/2)

For decades now, the Smoke Devil had been biding its time, waiting for a new victim…

…It had a mission to complete!

Van briefly glimpsed a snake-like silhouette in the devil's memories. He stood somewhere off to the side in his mindscape, looking upon the devil's memories like watching the moon's reflection in a pool of water. As he watched, he realised the silhouette was not of a snake but of a slender figure.

The memory was tinged with sour notes of panic and fear. The Smoke Devil was extremely afraid of the figure before it.

Van thought that the silhouette was the one to order the Smoke Devil to infiltrate the Cedar Sect. However, he could not confirm this.

All Van heard was what sounded like the hissing of countless snakes. So numerous and loud that nothing else could be heard.

A chill suddenly ran through him. His heart pounded in his chest.

The person...the person was looking straight at him.

Van took a step back.

Bright yellow eyes stared him down through the dark fog of the memory.

[This is a memory!] Van told himself, holding his trepidation back.

The scene dissolved away. The yellow eyes vanished as well.

The devil's memories faded away. Van emerged from his mindscape to find himself back in his room.

He was not able to discern what the Smoke Devil's so-called mission was and who had given it. He felt frustrated.

Could this Smoke Devil's appearance have any link at all to Elder Lang's crazed state? Could the Disciplinary Elder have had contact with 'Scattering Smoke Steps'?

Was there something bigger afoot?

Countless questions bombarded Van's mind.

[Whoever planted it is much stronger than you, Van. You cannot do anything about it, only be cautious and wary about demonic influence from here on out. I advise you to put off solving this mystery until you are strong enough to handle the consequences.]

Van considered Jet's words. He nodded and put the incident out of his mind.

[A Smoke Devil is born from the essence of smoke. Eating its core will have increased your understanding of 'smoke' by a lot. Calm yourself and focus.]

Van turned his eyes to the smoke coming off the fire place.

________________

Time passed.

Van slowly felt as if he was becoming familiar with the patterns within the smoke. Sometimes it danced, sometimes it drifted, sometimes it faded in and out of sight. The patterns were normally very fast and hard to pick out, but now that Van had consumed the Smoke Devil's core, he felt that each of these patterns were obvious and easy to spot. Although these patterns were numbered in the millions and seemed to be random, in fact the movement of the smoke followed patterns that repeated all the time!

When he considered it further, he felt as if the patterns within the smoke shared vague similarities with the flickering flames in the hearth. It was as if one gave rise to the other, like a phoenix from ashes.

He stood up. What if these mysterious patterns were the 'essence'?

”I must move like the smoke…”

Van felt the world become shadowed and vague. His body flickered.

A moment later, the darkened world became bright again.

Thunk!

[Huh?]

Van turned his head and looked around. He stood there, dumbfounded.

[I was facing the bed before but now I'm right next to it…!}

He had disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the room!

”So, this was the power of 'Scattering Smoke Steps!'” Van enthused. His blood hummed with excitement.

Although training 'Scattering Smoke Steps' was hard, Van did not let himself slow down the pace.

In three days, he finally learned the skill to a low level of completion.

Techniques and skills had five categories that showed how familiar you were with it. The higher the level of your skill, the greater the strength of the skill. Higher levels could also unlock successive moves.

These levels were: Low, Middle, High, Expert and Pinnacle.

Van had trained Fists of Devouring Flame and Scattering Smoke Steps to the low-level. Dark Seas Palm was his only middle-level skill.

”Scattering Smoke Steps!”

Van's body disappeared. His body was as light as a feather as he stepped lightly across the room. He moved erratically like the smoke, reappearing and disappearing at odd speeds. It was extremely hard to pin down his form and almost impossible to predict where he would appear next.

”I have only trained Scattering Smoke Steps to the low level and yet it is already so effective!” He enthused.

Van spent one more day training Scattering Smoke Steps. By the end of his training, he felt his movements in the air had become easier and smoother. The erratic patterns that he needed to form with his steps became almost instinctive.

The young man stood up and dusted off his robes.